Yeah, so he dies to removal. So what? Play him when your opponent's tapped out and you have a full grip of counters. That's the kind of deck that wants this guy anyway. Getting a Sphinx's Revelation every turn is pretty sweet too.

His ETB effect basically takes care of "dies to removal", since almost all removal is sorcery or instant. Then the next turn you get to have your land untapped again for casting counter magic.

That said, the Sphinx's Revelation ability is not as good as the original spell, since the original spell was 99% cast at the opponent's end of turn. When is it safe to use the ability? You're looking at needing 8+ mana to safely keep enough mana open to counter stuff.